NASHVILLE (AP) - A funeral service will be held Saturday for Dr. Harriette Bias-Insignares, the first African-American poet laureate/ambassador of letters for the state of Tennessee.

She died last week at the age of 72. The funeral will be at Fairfield Baptist Church in Goodlettsville, Tennessee.

Bias-Insignares had been a longtime professor of communications at Tennessee State University, where she received several awards.

Since 1977, she served the state of Tennessee as its official state poet and arts advocate under the title "Tennessee's Ambassador of Letters."

To honor her for her many years of service to the people of Tennessee through poetry, Bias-Insignares was named the first poet laureate of Nashville.